Privacy Policy

Where your data is kept

RoutineArc stores every task, event, and note in an on-device SQLite database. There is no RoutineArc account, and nothing you write is uploaded to us — we run no server to upload it to.

iCloud sync is off until you turn it on, and it comes with RoutineArc Unlimited. While it is on, your tasks and their steps, lists, events, calendars, notes, habits, saved places, focus time and what RoutineArc has learned about you are also kept in the private iCloud database of your Apple Account, so that each of your devices that syncs has them. Task photos and settings stay on the device where you made them, except a business rhythm and work schedule you choose to share. Your data is encrypted on its way to iCloud and while it is stored there. By default Apple holds the keys; with Advanced Data Protection on, the text and details of your items are end-to-end encrypted. RoutineArc has no server, and its maker cannot read your iCloud data. Turning sync off stops it on that device; to remove RoutineArc's data from iCloud, delete it in your device's iCloud storage settings.

Siri and Shortcuts, the share sheet and the Control Center control reach RoutineArc through parts of it that run on your device. What you share into RoutineArc, and what you ask Siri to add or complete, waits in a folder on your device that only RoutineArc can read, until RoutineArc takes it. Siri is Apple's, so what you say to it is handled under Apple's privacy policy, and RoutineArc receives the words of the request. RoutineArc tells iOS the kind of action you took, such as completing a task, and never what it was about, so that iOS can suggest it.

Your content leaves the device only in the specific cases described here and below, and each one is either optional or something you start yourself: iCloud sync, optional address lookup, dictation you explicitly allow Apple to transcribe, opening a map, exporting a backup, sharing a PDF you exported, and buying, restoring or redeeming a code for an unlock through the App Store.

These reach Apple too, and carry none of your content: the App Store's answer, on launch and on returning to the app, to whether this Apple Account holds an unlock and whether a subscription renewal is failing; opening Apple's Terms of Use from the unlock screen, which loads a page in a browser; Apple's Manage subscription sheet, from the unlock screen or the payment-issue banner on Today; and the rating prompt iOS sometimes offers, whose outcome this app never sees, or the App Store's review page when you tap Rate RoutineArc under More.

While iCloud sync is on, this reaches your own devices nearby and carries none of your content: Handoff telling your other devices signed in to the same Apple Account which item you have open (by its identifier and not what it says) so you can open it there.

Microphone

Microphone access is used solely to convert your speech into tasks, events, and notes while you are using voice capture. RoutineArc asks for on-device recognition through iOS's own speech framework, so your audio is not sent to us and normally does not leave your device. If your device cannot recognise your language on-device, RoutineArc offers you a choice: decline and type it instead, or accept and let Apple transcribe that recording on its servers under Apple's privacy policy. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you accept, and the choice is per session, never remembered silently.

Apple Calendar

Apple Calendar is off until you connect it in Settings → Calendar → Apple Calendar, and RoutineArc asks iOS for access only when you tap Connect Apple Calendar. While it is on, RoutineArc reads the events in the calendars you leave on (their title, times, location, calendar, and whether you declined them) on this device, to show them on Today, in the Calendar tab, in Plan my day, on the widgets and in Siri's answer to what's next. It never changes, adds or deletes an event in your calendars, and never reads your reminders.

The events are held in memory while RoutineArc runs, and in the snapshot the widgets read on this device. They are not copied into RoutineArc's database, its backups, Export data or iCloud sync, and no address of theirs is ever looked up. A day plan you export to PDF lists the day's events, these included, and goes where you share it. Which calendars you turned off is kept on this device, and iCloud sync does not carry it. To stop, turn off Show Apple Calendar events, or turn off RoutineArc's access in iOS Settings → RoutineArc → Calendars.

Camera & text scanning

If you scan an image, the camera/photo access is used only to capture that image, and text recognition (OCR) runs entirely on-device via Apple's Vision framework. Images are never uploaded. The text read from them becomes your items, and with address lookup on, an address among them is looked up like one you type. RoutineArc keeps no copy of a photo you only scan; the photo picker's temporary copy is left in the app's cache, which the system clears when it needs space.

A photo you attach to a task is kept with that task, on this device, and is included in the backups RoutineArc saves and the data you export. When you remove or replace the photo, or delete the task, RoutineArc deletes its copy the next time it starts. A backup saved before then still holds the photo until that backup is deleted.

A photo you share into RoutineArc from another app is kept on this device, in a folder only RoutineArc can read, until you add or discard it. It is read with the same on-device recognition when you open it, and RoutineArc deletes its copy the next time it takes in what was shared.

Location

If you grant location access, RoutineArc uses it to estimate drive time to tasks and events that have a location. That estimate is computed entirely on your device — no routing or traffic service is contacted, and the position it reads is used for the calculation and then discarded.

Position is kept or sent in a few places, all of them things you tap. Tapping Navigate on a task or an event sends the item's location as written (a saved place's name) and its coordinates when it has them, to Apple Maps. Saving a place with "Pin Current Location" stores its coordinates with that place, on this device, so the drive-time estimate has something to measure to; deleting the place deletes them. Tapping the crosshair in a task or an event stores your position on that item in the same way. While address lookup is on, an event's address is looked up once, in the background, and the result is stored with the event, and a task's or event's address is looked up when you open it, if it has not been found yet. That includes an address dictated, read from a photo, filled in by Memory or imported, not only one you typed. With address lookup on, a saved place's address is looked up too, when you save the place in Saved Places or Work Schedule, or look it up again. And address lookup itself, described next, can send a position off the device.

Looking up an address is a separate, optional feature. Apple's geocoder is network-backed, so enabling it sends the address on a task or event, however it got there (typed, dictated, read from a photo, filled in by Memory or imported), and a saved place's address (from Saved Places or Work Schedule), to the system geocoding service. While it is on, "Pin Current Location" and the crosshair in a task or an event send your coordinates to the same system geocoder, to look up the address there. Nothing is sent to any other company: an address the system geocoder cannot find simply does not resolve. It is OFF by default, and you can turn it on under Settings → Places → Address lookup. Saved places store their coordinates once, so drive time keeps working with it off. Location is optional throughout.

On-device AI

AI features run entirely on your device. Understanding what you type or say, summarising a note and suggesting subtasks use Apple Intelligence, which is built into iOS and runs on the device's Neural Engine; day planning and priority are ordinary arithmetic over your schedule rather than a model at all. There is no model to download and nothing to sign in to, and no AI feature sends your content to a server. If Apple Intelligence is unavailable, a deterministic rules engine takes over and also runs entirely on-device.

No third-party analytics

RoutineArc adds no analytics, tracking, or crash reporting, and embeds no third-party advertising or analytics SDKs. The system frameworks it uses — Vision for text recognition, Core Location for location, and Apple Intelligence for AI where the device has it — are part of iOS and are governed by Apple’s own privacy policy. We do not receive any data from them.

Buying and restoring

RoutineArc is free for seven days, after which capturing or changing items needs a monthly or yearly subscription, an Essentials unlock, or the lifetime unlock. Purchases go through the App Store, so your payment details are handled entirely by Apple and are never seen by this app.

What RoutineArc learns is one thing: whether the Apple Account on this device holds an unlock. Not your name, not your Apple Account address, not a payment method, and not what else you have bought. That check runs on the device itself — there is still no RoutineArc account and no server of ours involved.

The seven days are counted from whichever is earlier: the date the App Store records for your first download, or the first time you opened the app. The first is read through the App Store, which a new install may have to ask once; the second is purely local. RoutineArc keeps neither anywhere but this device.

Writing to the developer

Email the developer, under More, opens your email app with a message addressed to JfDevIos@gmail.com and the version of RoutineArc as its subject. RoutineArc adds nothing else to it and never sees it, or whether you sent it. What reaches the developer is only what you write and send.

Notifications

Reminder notifications are scheduled locally on your device. No notification content leaves your device.

Export is in your hands

Apart from iCloud sync while you have it on, data leaves in bulk only when you send it: Export data, under Settings → Sync and backups → Backups, hands a JSON copy to the app you choose via the iOS share sheet, and each saved backup has its own Share button that does the same with that snapshot. Nothing is sent anywhere you did not pick.

Data collection

RoutineArc collects no personal data. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising identifier, and no tracking across apps or websites. We operate no server that receives your content.

Children

RoutineArc is not directed at children and collects no personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the revised version is published at this address with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions about this policy: JfDevIos@gmail.com